Charleston
The American variations of Mahjong have a final step before play begins which called the Charleston (named after the dance). The Charlestone begins with each player selecting three tiles from their hand and passing them to the player on their right. Next three tiles are selected and passed the the player opposite from them and finally three tiles are slected and passed to the left. A second round of the Charleston may be performed if all players are in agreement, however should one player not wish to perform the second Charleston then it is not performed.
After the Charleston(s) have been completed there is an optional pass on one, two or three tiles to the player across the table. This type of performance is only found in the American Variation and may have been taken from many different card games that were popular at the time that Mahjong was introduced.
